My feet feel cold on the wood floor as I walk towards Ma’s room. I raise my hand to knock on her door; no answer. Ma’s not waking up today. She’s silly. I walk back to the kitchen to make myself breakfast, Ma used to make it everyday but now she says I’m a big girl who can do it all by herself. I open the cupboards, but they’re all empty.  Ma must have forgot to go shopping again. I swing open the fridge, but there’s only Ma’s juice in there and I’m not allowed to touch that. I wish Ma would wake up already.
I go to turn on the tv, but it stays off. I try the lights, but they’re out too. Ma must forgot that too. She forgets a lot. Ma hasn’t acted like Ma lately. She used to be happy and she wanted to play all the time, now she’s cranky and never wants to play except when she has Brandon over, but I’m not allowed to play those games. Ma said that when Brandon is over I have to lock my door and put in the special noise blockers she bought me. One time I didn’t, but now I always do.
I look out the window and see that Mr. Sky is rainy today, I love rain the very most. I like to go out in my rain boots and stomp stomp stomp right in the puddles. Ma would tell me I was making a mess, but she was laughing so I don’t think she was too mad. Ma had a really funny laugh, but she doesn’t do that much now. Maybe when she wakes up we can go and play in the puddles.
I watch as raindrops run down the window, they’re in a race. One goes real fast and zooms right on by the other right to the finish line. I look to see if any others want to race and I see me in the window, Grandma says I look just like Ma did when she was little but I can’t imagine Ma being little, she’s too big. Ma used to be the prettiest lady I ever saw, but now she her face is foldy and spotty. I asked her why, but she got mad and told me to go to my room.
I go to the closet to find my rain boots, but all I find are Ma’s sneakers. One of them is missing a lace. I don’t know how to do up the laces yet, so my shoes have crunchy velcro on them that makes a cool ‘riiiiip’ noise. Ma should have gotten velcro too so she wouldn’t lose her laces. I move a pair of yellow sandals and find my rain boots. I run my finger around the happy green frog that’s stamped on the top. I squish my feet inside the boots, they’re getting a little small. Ma said she’d buy me new ones but she didn’t. I can’t wait for Ma to wake up, so I walk right up to her door and turn the handle.
Yuck. Ma must’ve sicked in here. I look over to her bed and see she’s still asleep. She’s sleeping in her clothes from yesterday, what a goofball she is. I walk closer, she has one leg over the side of the bed, she’s not wearing socks and I can see her foot is brown and dirty. I take her toe and shake her leg
“Ma, wake up” I whisper
Ma doesn’t move. I see something weird on her arm, it’s her missing shoelace. Below it is a needle like the one the doctors had to put in me to stop me from getting the flu. Maybe Ma’s sick and that’s why she’s so sleepy. I look at her face, her eyes are open but she’s still not moving.
“Wake up” I say louder
Ma is still. I look around her room and see a dirty brown spoon on her nightstand next to a picture of me and her on the beach, but I don’t see any medicine. Ma must be really sick because I see she has some throw up running down her chin. I look into her eyes, but I don’t see her there at all.
“Wake up!” I scream as a shake her harder. I feel tears running down my face, they race like raindrops down my cheeks. I touch Ma’s face and it feels very cold. Her arms are covered in bug bites. I don’t think Ma is okay.
“WAKE UP!”